2010 World Touring Car Championship season
The 2010 World Touring Car Championship season will be the seventh FIA World Touring Car Championship season, the sixth since its 2005 return. It will begin with the Race of Brazil at Curitiba on March 7, and will end with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on November 21, after twenty-four races. The championship has adopted a new points system, the same that has been introduced by Formula One and the World Rally Championship. The winner will receive 25 points, continuing with 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point for 10th place. Teams and drivers The full season entry list was released on February 19, 2010. |valign="top"| |} Team and driver changes Chevrolet have replaced the retiring Nicola Larini in their three-car line-up with ex-SEAT Sport driver Yvan Muller. BMW Motorsport announced they were reducing their participation from a five-car team to a two-car team, with Augusto Farfus moving from BMW Team Germany to Team RBM to join Andy Priaulx. Former BMW Team Italy-Spain driver Alex Zanardi has retired from the series, while former BMW Team Germany driver Jörg Müller will race in the Le Mans Series with Schnitzer. SEAT Sport have withdrawn from the series for 2010, but have helped to form a new team SR-Sport, for whom Independents champion Tom Coronel and ex-SEAT Sport drivers Jordi Gené, Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini will drive for. Stefano D'Aste has returned to Scuderia Proteam Motorsport, for whom he raced in 2005, 2006 and 2008, moving from Wiechers-Sport. His seat has been taken by Mehdi Bennani, who moves from Exagon Engineering. D'Aste has been joined at Proteam by Sergio Hernández, who returns to Proteam from BMW Team Italy-Spain. Andrey Romanov has rejoined the series and the Liqui Moly Team Engstler setup. He replaces Kristian Poulsen, who will race with his own Poulsen Motorsport team. Michel Nykjær has joined SUNRED Engineering after racing in the WTCC for Perfection Racing at the 2009 Race of Germany. He replaces Tom Boardman, who will return to the British Touring Car Championship, driving for Special Tuning (UK). Zengő Dension Motorsport have joined the series, along with their driver, SEAT León Eurocup champion Norbert Michelisz, who drove the SUNRED prize car on two occasions - in 2008 and 2009. British Touring Car team Bamboo Engineering have joined the WTCC, along with their driver Harry Vaulkhard. Darryl O'Young, who drove in the FIA GT Championship with Prospeed Competition in 2009, will be his teammate. James Thompson, who drove for LADA Sport in 2009, will race at certain European rounds for Hartmann Racing. Lada will certainly miss the first two rounds of the 2010 season, but aim to return for the Race of Mexico. SEAT's Rickard Rydell has elected to take a sabbatical from racing for the 2010 season. Instead, he will become a pundit for Viasat Motor's coverage of the Swedish Touring Car Championship. Without drives for 2010 are Lada's Jaap van Lagen and Kirill Ladygin, and Félix Porteiro, who drove for Proteam in 2009. Calendar A provisional calendar for the 2010 season was approved by the FIA World Council on 24 June 2009. The final calendar was published on 21 October 2009. Calendar changes * The Race of Belgium is to replace the Race of France, and will be on the calendar for the first time since 2005. This time it will be at Zolder rather than Spa-Francorchamps. * The Race of Portugal will move to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. * The venue for the Race of Italy has been changed from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near Imola back to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, which hosted the race from 2005 until 2008. Results and standings Races References External links * Official website of the World Touring Car Championship Category:2010 in motorsports Category:WTCC Seasons